Curiosity on Gloriana Class Battleship

[Whitelion]

I have been wondering as I have followed this thread, just how many Gloriana class ships do we know about across the various legion lore? Are there any instances of non Astartes commanded Glorianas? And what other "first rate" ships are up there in status with Glorianas?

 

Sorry it's a lot of questions. I'm now going to the Lexicanum and 40k wiki to do some research.

consulting lexicanum and wikia, we read that there are only 20 Glorian classes, one for Primarch, therefore one per legion, unfortunately wikia and lexicanum are lacking in this, as well as in many other things.

It is understandable, the 40k canon is huge, it is difficult to keep up

[Lord_Caerolion]

There's definitely far more than 20 Gloriana-class ships out there.

 

EDIT: To expand on that, back when we first heard about Gloriana's, they were described as the best ships, and we tended to be only shown singular examples in each Legions fleets, and they tended to only be the flagship. As such, an assumption was made that, well, that means that they only exist as Legion flagships, there are 20 Legions, therefore there are 20 Gloriana's.

 

However, as we've been shown more of the capabilities of the assorted Legions, we've found that to not be the case, and now we've finally been told about the Dark Angels, who are heavily implied to have a decent number, maybe around 10 or so. There's a passage in Crusade about how when the Emperor was basically handing out ships around Saturn, which included "Gloriana class battleships, Promethean class cruisers" and "Tiamat class destroyers". 

 

To each of His other Legions He bequeathed but a handful of such ships, while to the First Legion He granted a fleet.

Edited September 23, 2020 by Lord_Caerolion

[Leif Bearclaw]

I have been wondering as I have followed this thread, just how many Gloriana class ships do we know about across the various legion lore? Are there any instances of non Astartes commanded Glorianas? And what other "first rate" ships are up there in status with Glorianas?

 

Sorry it's a lot of questions. I'm now going to the Lexicanum and 40k wiki to do some research.

 

Given the context of the quote from Crusade featured in this thread 'first rate' could quite simply mean 'battleship'. Or it could be a Battleship at or above 'power level/armament/displacement X' (in the same way the Royal Navy's first rates during the Napoleonic era all had a minimum of 100 guns). Unfortunately it's a vague, undefined term so it's hard to draw a firm conclusion.

 

There are definitely non-Astartes Glorianas however, and one is named in one of the Black books (Retribution iirc). The Amphion was attached to the Armada Imperialis (I think that's what the GC era navy was called) Sol reserve and was involved in the Xana Incursion, later being destroyed in the fighting leading up to the Siege of Terra iirc.

[timdp]

Just remember that the Terminus Est is a full-blown Plagueship, and almost certainly heavily possessed. It's a battle-cruiser in the Heresy era, but by the time of the Gothic War it's had 10,000 years to soak in the Warp to mutate and grow.

 

 

Yup! From the  Cadian Blood novel: “It was beyond big. The Herald’s flagship was bloated and vast, built to be a battleship beyond reckoning and swollen by Chaos in the ten millennia since it first drifted from the orbital docks of the forge world that birthed it. Its ridged surface bristled with a thousand disease-caked cannons, each ready to fire.”

 

Excerpt From: Aaron Dembski-Bowden. “Cadian Blood.”. 

[Iron Father Ferrum]

What ever happened to the fist of iron?You don't leave a gloriana to rot no matter how damaged it is especially when your a Ironhand with your own private forgeworld and one of the richest sources of archeotech(medusa) in the imperium in your home system

We haven't seen the Fist of Iron again yet, unfortunately.  Until GW tells us otherwise, I head-canon and that it's drydocked in the Telstarax.  Considering how the ambush at Istvaan was carried out, though, it's entirely possible that the Fist was destroyed in orbit.  It would have been a primary target for several different reasons, not the least of which being you don't let a ship that big and powerful survive if you have ideal conditions in which to kill it.

[RandomMarine]

 

 

What ever happened to the fist of iron?You don't leave a gloriana to rot no matter how damaged it is especially when your a Ironhand with your own private forgeworld and one of the richest sources of archeotech(medusa) in the imperium in your home system

We haven't seen the Fist of Iron again yet, unfortunately. Until GW tells us otherwise, I head-canon and that it's drydocked in the Telstarax. Considering how the ambush at Istvaan was carried out, though, it's entirely possible that the Fist was destroyed in orbit. It would have been a primary target for several different reasons, not the least of which being you don't let a ship that big and powerful survive if you have ideal conditions in which to kill it.

Did it even make it to istvaan after the emperors children fleet attacked it

[Claws and Effect]

Technically a bigger battle barge is basically just a Gloriana that's outfitted for planetary assault rather than void combat.

 

Where the Gloriana has guns on top of guns, a battle barge strips a lot of them out to make room for the drop pod tubes and hangars for Thunderhawks.

[Karack Blackstone]

So my best guess is that a Basic Gloriana is apparently five (5) Broadsides each side.

 

So build / kitbash a five broadside bay "Battleship" and give it a prow and it's a Basic Gloriana

 

A Battle Barge Gloriana has the five broadside bays and a Battle Barge prow..

 

Not quite sure how that'd work, you'd need exactly two and one half Battle Barge pieces, with one BB section cut in half to make it the five. And then the BB Prow.

 

So, simply put, a "Normal" Gloriana should have three fighter bays and two Macrocannon Broadsides. One can make it 2 Fighters, 1 Lance Battery, and 2 Macrocannons, or 2 Fighters, 3 Macrocannons.

 

The BB Gloriana could then haul 9 Space Marine Companies, or some combination to 9 sections. With a simple layout redesign, a 10 Company Gloriana with a repacked Prow SM Co. transport bay, 4 instead of 3, would be roughly 20,000 to 30,000 points, depending on if each bay is 2,000 or 3,000 points each.